Cypress, American Predator Enter Strategic Alliance; Industrial Board Designer to Use Cypress Products in Embedded Applications.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 22, 1999--Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (NYSE:CY) today announced that it signed an agreement with American Predator Corp. to supply system logic and clocking solutions for APC's line of embedded motherboards.

"Cypress has built a strong reputation for high-performance products," said Ed Trevis, president and CEO of American Predator, a Morgan Hill, CA-based designer and manufacturer of X86 motherboards and microcontrollers for a wide range of embedded applications and industrial environments. "Its devices are designed to meet or exceed the full temperature and functional requirements of military products, and Cypress received full Qualified Manufacturer List (QML) certification from the Defense Electronics Supply Center in 1996. This reputation-along with the fact that it operates multiple U.S. manufacturing facilities-makes Cypress an ideal choice for the high-reliability needs of the industrial channel."

"Product life cycles in the mainstream PC market usually run less than two years," said Dan McCranie, Cypress's' executive vice president of sales and marketing. "Embedded systems, on the other hand, usually have a much longer life cycle. As a result, it is important for embedded systems manufacturers to have long-term supply agreements with their vendors. By guaranteeing APC long-term production support, we are meeting this need."

Trevis, a long-time proponent of the X86 open-architecture as the most cost-effective method to standardize industrial platforms, agreed that long-term support -- and the strategic alliance with Cypress -- would be play a key role in reducing the "roller-coaster impact" on APC customers of rapidly changing board design cycles. "Our association with Cypress will raise the confidence level of American Predator customers and eliminate their concerns about here-today, gone-tomorrow product and technical support," Trevis said. APC uses Cypress prodcuts on its Hunter series of boards.

Cypress Semiconductor Corporation is an international supplier of high-performance integrated circuits with worldwide headquarters in San Jose, California. The company provides a broad range of products for leading computer, networking, and telecommunications companies worldwide. Cypress's product line includes static RAM and specialty memories; programmable logic devices (PLDs); data communications products; FCT logic; and personal computer timing devices and USB microcontrollers. Its shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CY. The company's worldwide web site is http://www.cypress.com.

American Predator is a leading U.S. designer and manufacturer of industrial-grade X86 motherboards, industrial-rack mount systems, and standard and custom board designs for a broad range of industrial applications, including medical, instrumentation, test and measurement, robotics, industrial PCs, factory automation & industrial control, telecommunications, semiconductor, petrochemical, security, heavy machinery, computer telephony industry, point-of-sale, and gaming technology. The company has a site on the worldwide web at http://www.americanpredator.com.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements herein that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" involving risks and uncertainties. Please refer to Cypress's Securities and Exchange Commission filings for a discussion of such risks.